And so we pay: more digital and faster, with cash still in play
Highlights
- The use of cashless payments continues to increase. In particular, the use of credit transfers and e-money has grown, especially in emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs).
- Fast payments are gaining further ground and a key driver of the growing use of credit transfers in many EMDEs. Fast payments are often associated with less cash in circulation, and with more and smaller card payments.
- The ongoing digitalisation of payments coincides with a further decline in cash in circulation. Even so, the demand for cash withdrawals has generally stabilised, which highlights the lasting role of cash.
Introduction
Driven by changing user demands and technological advancements, digital payments, and fast payments in particular, have been on the rise for years. Yet cash has continued to play an important role as a means of payment.
This CPMI Brief highlights key retail payment trends as observed in the 2023 Red Book statistics. These statistics were collected in the second half of 2024 from member jurisdictions of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) and are publicly available in the BIS Data Portal. The Brief starts with an overview of the use of cashless payment methods and then focusses, in particular, on the use of fast payments and the provision of non-bank payment accounts. It then discusses global trends in cash in circulation and cash withdrawals as proxies of the use of cash. It concludes with a summary of the key takeaways.
